Openreach turns up the heat to force laggards off legacy copper lines

Summary

Openreach is accelerating the move away from the copper-based public switched telephone network (PSTN) by hiking charges on legacy business lines to force migrations to all-digital services. The operator says the PSTN will be terminated on 31 January 2027 and flags that roughly half a million commercial lines remain unmigrated. From 1 April providers face a 20% rise, then a further 40% on 1 July and another 40% on 1 October, effectively doubling legacy line rental costs versus last year for any businesses still using the old service.

Openreach is offering migrations to SOGEA (broadband without a phone service) and has put measures in place to support vulnerable telecare customers, including interim PDPL and SOTAP/EVAC arrangements where fibre is unavailable. The company says technical barriers have been addressed and urges customers to contact their service provider to avoid losing service after the cut-off.

Key Points

Openreach plans to switch off the PSTN on 31 January 2027; the deadline is presented as fixed.
About 500,000 business lines remain on legacy copper and are the target of escalation measures.
Price increases for legacy Wholesale Line Rental: +20% from 1 April, +40% from 1 July, +40% from 1 October — cumulatively doubling rental for holdouts.
Migration options include SOGEA (if fibre is available) and SOTAP/PDPL/EVAC as interim solutions for customers without broadband or in fibre-less areas.
Openreach says telecare migration protections are in place (“Prove Telecare”) to help vulnerable users move to digital voice without losing critical alarms.
Customers who do nothing risk being moved to lower-function EVAC services or losing service entirely after the cut-off; contact your provider now.

Context and relevance

This is a major operational shift in UK telecoms: the long-running PSTN retirement is now being enforced commercially rather than by repeated deadline extensions. For businesses, especially those with analogue telephony dependencies (point-of-sale terminals, alarm lines, legacy PBXes, telecare), the staged price hikes create a powerful incentive to migrate sooner rather than later to avoid higher running costs or service disruption.

The move ties into broader industry trends towards IP-based voice and fibre roll-outs, and it raises practical concerns about continuity, security and fraud during the transition (scams tied to the switch have already been reported). Public sector and vulnerable-customer protections remain critical, and operators will need to manage migrations carefully to avoid outages or degraded emergency communications.

Why should I read this?

If your business still uses a copper phone line, this is your final nudge — and a costly one if you ignore it. Openreach is hiking prices to make staying on PSTN painful, and the switch-off date is less than a year away. Read the detail so you know your migration options (SOGEA, SOTAP, PDPL, EVAC) and can avoid surprise bills or dropped phone lines. Seriously — get in touch with your provider now.

Source

Source: https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2026/02/07/openreach_ptsn_hikes/